Both Sides

Cao Hai pushed the door open with care, and saw Peng Longteng lying on the bed, letting two doctors stitch the wound on her neck.

“Aiya—!” Cao Hai walked in, stomped heavily beside Peng Longteng.

“Have you lost your mind? Killing several thousand people!”

Peng Longteng, who had been resting with her eyes closed, spoke. “If they don’t pay, who’ll fight for them? If there’s no reward, who’ll win battles for them?”

“Trying to get money out of them is harder than killing them. Fine—if they’re in a bind, then I’ll collect my own reward.”

“I fought that long on the battlefield. I’m not letting my men suffer.”

“You—you—you!” Cao Hai was so angry he couldn’t form words.

“It’s just a town of a few thousand. Look at you, all in a panic. If I hadn’t picked a city, I’d have been more than generous toward those big-headed officials.”

“Easy for you to say! Those were subjects of the Later Shu!” Cao Hai wiped tears in anger, pacing back and forth inside the room.

“Now the court is tearing itself apart over the natural disasters, and you have to go add to their problems! You’ve offended all of them!”

Pushing aside the doctor who was stitching her neck, Peng Longteng sat up straight.

“What do natural disasters have to do with me? Even if the sky falls, soldiers need to be paid. Besides, what are you afraid of? It’s not the first time there’s been a disaster.”

“My dear lady—fine, take the pay, but why did you have to kill people?”

Complaining, Cao Hai raised a pinky and dabbed at the bloodstains on Peng Longteng’s armor with a handkerchief.

“I just came down from battle. So many dead. And still no reward or pay. The lads had a knot in their chests. If I didn’t let it out, they’d have mutinied.”

Cao Hai’s voice dropped. “Say whatever you want. Paper can’t wrap fire. If the court finds out what you did…”

“Let them find out. You think those sharp-witted bastards didn’t already guess?”

“They skimmed the pay of the convict-soldiers. Did they really not expect my reaction?”

“The higher-ups won’t blow this up. The big-headed officials will help cover it up. If it gets big, nobody looks good.”

“Now it’s fine. They don’t have to pay extra, we got our wages. Nobody lost.”

“Besides, I didn’t do it blindly. I had a righteous cause. Didn’t you see I already smoked out a few Siqi spies?”

At this, Peng Longteng remembered something. Her face darkened. She reached for her left cheek.

Most of the green tattoo on that face had been burned away. The twisted characters “精忠”—“Loyal and True”—looked especially grotesque.

Especially her left eye. Peng Longteng’s once elegant phoenix eye was now covered in a white film. Clearly blind.

“Good lad. Escaped from my hand and even injured me. Got guts.”

“Supervisor, pass word to the Supervisory Heavenly Office. Once they find him, tell me the location. I’ll be the one to kill him.”

“Ai—General, let it go. Since that boy belongs to the Ao-Jing Sect, he’s out of your jurisdiction. Let’s return to camp.”

“No! I don’t let grudges last the night! Whoever crosses me—they fucking die!”

“But you don’t have a pretext. Oh, you’re going to lead troops all over the Later Shu without orders? Do you think you’re the Emperor?”

“A general in the field may refuse orders from the capital. The bandits of Scorched Mountain raised a flag in rebellion and oppressed the people. I, this General, am going to suppress them.”

Cao Hai’s face was full of helplessness. “Rebellion? Weren’t they just beaten into submission by you?”

“I say they rebelled, so they rebelled!”

Peng Longteng slammed her armor-clad fist down, smashing a hole through the sturdy wooden bed. —————————————

The wolf-tooth club, lined with sharp teeth, crashed down, smashing the head of a two-meter-long snake into pulp.

Gao Zhijian reached down, picked it up, grinned dumbly, then tossed it over his shoulder and headed back.

This was a stone forest. Though rocks were everywhere, it was at least not as barren as before. Green plants gave the place a hint of life.

He hadn’t walked long before he saw the others. They were at a cave mouth.

“Do—do—do—” He approached, holding the giant snake high.

“Do what? Senior Brother Li said no fires. Gnaw on dry rations, you.”

But Jin Shanzhao didn’t think that way. Smiling, he reached out and took the snake.

“Without fire, we cannot cook. But this can be made into snake sashimi.”

Saying this, he pulled out a small knife, slit the snake’s belly, and carefully sliced the fresh meat into thin pieces, arranging them neatly.

Jin Shanzhao picked up his bamboo chopsticks, took two slices, dipped them in chili powder, and put them in his mouth.

“Mm—truly exquisite. Everyone, try some.”

The others gathered around, eating piece by piece.

Gouwa, eating happily, paused his chopsticks and called out to Li Huowang in the distance. “Senior Brother Li! Come eat snake meat! Raw snake in the mouth—I gotta say, it’s kind of like chewing on fat.”

At that moment, Li Huowang paid him no attention. He held his head, continuing to test his new ability.

Shua—! When Li Huowang opened his eyes again, he found his perspective had flipped sideways, hanging on the stone wall. Below the wall was his own head.

“Closer… closer… don’t panic. Take it slow…”

As Li Huowang silently coached himself, his viewpoint shifted gradually, merging back with his body.

This time there was no gap. After so many days of practice, Li Huowang could align perfectly.

Looking left and right, Li Huowang’s phantom suddenly rushed at Mantou, who was crouching.

The thing that appeared out of nowhere startled the dog. His head tipped back and he fell to the ground.

Mantou got up, ears flattening, and wagged his tail at Li Huowang’s phantom.

Seeing this, Li Huowang thought to himself, “Never mind how I got it. This ability is very useful.”

“If I use it suddenly in a fight, it’ll catch the enemy off guard.”

“But I need more practice. I have to get it as familiar as my own limbs.”

Li Huowang could now make his phantom appear anywhere within about a zhang of his body.

He could also leave the phantom in place while his invisible real body moved elsewhere within that range.

If an enemy attacked his phantom, Li Huowang wouldn’t take any damage. Just like in his fight with that female general.

But he couldn’t use this power carelessly either. The enemy wasn’t stupid. Once they fell for it, they’d be wary the next time.

“Senior Brother Li—how’s your mastery of the divine ability?” Bai Lingmiao walked over, carrying a bowl of snake sashimi.

“Not bad.” Li Huowang picked up the chopsticks and ate it like noodles.

Raw snake meat wasn’t good, but to Li Huowang, who was sick of dry rations, it was fine.

“Senior Brother Li, how long until we’re out of the Later Shu?”

Li Huowang’s chopsticks paused. He pulled out the detailed map Jin Shanzhao had drawn and looked it over again.

“We can’t take the main roads. From now on, we’ll only take side paths—maybe not even those. But they don’t know where we’re heading, so I still have the initiative there.”

“Two days from now, we can reach here. Then about seven more days up, we should reach the border. We won’t pass through the checkpoint—we’ll go around it. As long as we’re out of the Later Shu, we’ll be safe.”

“But… we can’t last that long. Even if we ration it, the dry food will only last two more days at most.”